Ironman Lottery results

April 15 is the day that the Ironman race in Kona releases the lottery results, which makes it a "fork in the road" day for my calendar. This year, they showed the results on the Florida 70.3 show, but I was driving back from visiting my sister in DC and wasn't watching. We did get to drive near a Saab with an IM sticker and a tri-bike on top for a while.

My wife was talking to her friend on the trip. Her friend's husband is a bit of a jokester (and a friend) and he told me to go "cry in my gluten-free beer" because I hadn't been selected for Kona. I was annoyed, because I knew that the results wouldn't be online for a couple of days, so how could he know? And he said that he was watching the Florida show. Knowing his viewing habits, there really must have been nothing else on or he was yanking my chain. I told him there was no way he watched it, and he told me I was in denial.

It turns out he did watch, and I was in denial. I've been doing the lottery for years and have not been selected. Bit of a bummer.

There are basically three ways to get into the Kona Ironman race:

1. Be fast
2. Be lucky << my default option
   
3. Be rich

One of the the things that surprised me this year was my level of annoyance. It went beyond the usual annoyance at being at the wrong end of a joke, and for the first time there was a bit of disappointment. Upon reflection, it had nothing to do with my friend (who simply spoke truth, right?), but was about a change in my attitude. I'm not sure when it happened, but I'm pretty sure I "wanted it more" this year. I think it indicates to me that maybe I need to really sharpen the focus of my strategy on the other two options as well.

Disney workout

Last week I went with my family to Disneyworld, which I can recommend for those interested in keeping their base strong while vacationing "gluten free." Disney is more or less know for their ability to come up with a gluten-free solution at pretty much any place with a kitchen, which was good news. The children's meal plan is a little less congenial, but they were still able to come up with substitutions most of the time.

As with anywhere else, the key is to plan ahead. Disney has far overscheduled their restaurants, so you need to get reservations at the restaurants where you are planning to eat waaaayyyy ahead of time. Thank goodness for the French restaurant at Epcot that took pity on us when my sister decided she didn't "like" Moroccan -- the only restaurant we could get into on our first day. When my sister vetoed a restaurant based on preference vs. dietary need, it made me realize how flexible I'd become. I'll eat pretty much anywhere I can snag some GF food.

In terms of working out, my family thought it was wonderful that I would jog all over the park(s) with our cards to get "Fast Passes" -- I did, too. It's the first decent set of workouts I've had in weeks thanks to my schedule at work. It turns out an Ironman is pretty good training for Disneyworld. I was getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night and loving it.

Be careful what you wish for...

Back in an earlier posting, I'd mentioned that you don't want to feel too fresh going into race, because you peak early. Well - I'm three days out, and I still feel sluggish. Some of the workouts have been brilliant, but overall I still feel tired, so it's pretty good. I just want to keep remembering Mark Allen, who started out the Nice triathlon feeling bad, but then rallied for a come from behind victory.

Speaking of coming from behind, that's how work went today. I think someone's bugged my office so they know when I'm planning vacation. Of course, today of all days I had about four/five hours of work dropped on me at the last minute. It's all done, but I still have other work that needs to be finished...

Anyway - it's probably time to start sending out emails to my friends who want to know I'm doing on Saturday. One possible wrinkle -- one computer model has remnants of a tropical storm going through OKC Saturday/Sunday.

Race directing = time

Every night I've been thinking, "Oh - I should write in my blog." For some people, blogging is a way of life. For me, it comes behind just about everything else. Until I feel guilty that I haven't blogged in nine days.

I'm not sure what people mean by the "Ironman Lifestyle." It must mean something like - I have endless time to go do workouts and adjust this and consider that. What it's meaning to me is that "I settle for less than perfect - frequently"

I just went and printed 1000 copies of the race application for distribution around the Houston area. I figure we can print more or put things in the race packet if we get more sponsors later. It takes a lot of time to run these things down, so I'm trying to be as efficient as possible.

There's a meeting tomorrow for the volunteer group at the Katy Outback restaurant at 5pm. Please come out if you are interested in volunteering.

I did the Brookwood ride in Brookshire. I told my wife I wasn't go to do it unless I woke up in time to get there. My eyes snapped open right on schedule. There was a stiff wind today (flags straight out), and I rode with my group, basically cutting the wind all day. We finally turned for home and had the wind at our backs with about 7 miles to go. I was late so I just lit it up for the last bit. It felt great and turned out to be a great workout.

Working back into it...

Last night one of my friends invited me out for an 8 mile morning run. The group she runs with is usually substantially slower than me, but I figured I was going to be running slowly anyway. I needed to test out my wrist to see how it would feel on a long run.

It was supposed to be pretty cold this morning, so I layered up pretty good. We started before dawn, but by the time we finished the run it was pretty warm. By the end of the run, I felt good enough to try my normal training pace, and my wrist felt fine, so that's a blessing.

Later we went out to Starbucks and I got a chance to talk to her running partner about celiac. So it felt like a pretty successful day overall, and it wasn't even nine o'clock yet.

Tonight I took on the project of drilling a hole through my wall and routing a cable from my TiVo to the playroom. Of course, it took longer than I thought although I was finally successful. Now I'll be able to ride my bike, watch the Computrainer screen and watch TiVo at the same time. I figure that one place I can really pick up training time is riding my bicycle while I'm watching TV.

Speaking of TV, it was really nice to see the Ironman championship on TV today. Last year, the local television station didn't run the programming. It was nice that they ran two hours of it this year. It's always so inspirational, even when you know the outcome.

First Posting

I don't usually celebrate the completion of the three-mile run, but today is something special. About three weeks ago I went over the handlebars of my bike, landed on the asphalt and really hurt my wrists. One wrist was hurt so bad I went to the urgent care facility, then the orthopedist. I had a cast on my arm for two weeks, but they cut it off yesterday (not my arm, the cast). The MRI showed that my wrist wasn't broken after all, it was just really bruised and needed a wrist brace for support for the next month. I was thrilled.

You see, I'm training for the Ironman Wisconsin race in September 2007. Even three years ago, a race that distance was inconceivable to me even though it has been my goal to do the Ironman in Kona for nearly 25 years. I had been suffering through the training for marathon after marathon until three years ago I was diagnosed with celiac. Now my body takes up training much better and I feel I can tackle the distance.

So why a blog? Partially, I'd just like to keep a training log. I'd also like for it to be a source of tips and tricks for people who are considering doing an Ironman race. (Although I've done lots of marathons, I'm an Ironman newbie). Mostly, though, I'd like for it to be an avenue where people become more aware of how common celiac is and maybe help some of their sick friends get diagnosed. So I plan to talk about celiac, Ironman training, and then whatever else comes up.